In the literary works Fire on the Mountain by Anita Desai and The Cripple and His Talismans by Anosh Irani, the main characters have chosen to isolate themselves from the world; mentally, physically, and socially. Nanda Kaul, the main character in Anita Desai's Fire on the Mountain, lives alone and feels it is the only way she can live. But when her great-grand daughter comes to visit, Nanda has a strange reaction towards the child's lack of interest and communication with her. The unnamed narrator and main character in The Cripple and His Talismans was once a rich playboy who loses his arm and chooses to live as a poor-person and thus is able to solve the mystery behind his lost arm. Both characters use different methods of hiding certain truths from themselves, but eventually develop by seeing what they have worked so hard to bury.
Nanda Kaul lives at Carignano, a house atop a hill in Kausali, India.
Nanda Malini Show
Nanda Devi from the west.
Mr NandaShe describes her setting as bare and stark, suggesting that there is nobody else nearby. All she describes is the solitude of the plains and rolling hills. By doing so, the author is able to inspire feelings of isolation in the reader. It is only when she receives word through a letter that her great granddaughter Raka is coming to visit when Nanda notices the school not to far from the hill. This suggests that Nanda maybe hiding something from herself or may be choosing not to acknowledge the truth. Only the idea of the presence of an outsider makes her realize that there is other life in the world. This becomes even more apparent when the setting is viewed through Raka's eyes: there are whole villages and factories below. Nanda resents Raka's being at Carignano and disrupting the...